NEGOTIATIONS RESULTING IN TREATY OF 1818. 57 



agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or 

 possessors of the ground ; and the United States hereby renounce any 

 liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof to 

 take, dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the 

 coasts, bays, creeks, and harbors of His Britannic Majesty's do- 

 minions in America not included within the above-mentioned limits : 

 Provided^ hoivever^ That the American fishermen shall be admitted 

 to enter such bays and harbors for the purpose only of obtaining 

 shelter, wood, water, and bait, but under such restrictions as may be 

 necessary to prevent their drying or curing fish therein, or in any 

 other manner abusing the privilege hereby reserved to them." 



The explanatory memorandum which accompanied this draft was 

 as follows: 



EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM. 



The American plenipotentiaries presented for consideration an 

 article on the subject of certain fisheries. They stated, at the same 

 time, that as the United States considered the liberty of taking, 

 drying, and curing fish, secured to them by the treaty of peace of 

 1783, as being unimpaired, and still in full force for the whole extent 

 of the fisheries in question, whilst Great Britain considered that lib- 

 erty as having been abrogated by war; and as, by the article now 

 proposed, the United States offered to desist from their claim to a cer- 

 tain portion of the said fisheries, that offer was made with the under- 

 standing that the article now proposed, or any other on the same 

 subject which might be agreed on, should be considered as perma- 

 nent, and, like one for fixing boundaries between the territories of 

 the two parties, not to be abrogated by the mere fact of a war be- 

 tween them; or that, if vacated by any event whatever, the rights 

 of both parties should revive and be in full force, as if such an 

 article had not been agreed to.^ 



The counter proposal made by the British Plenipotentiaries was 



in the following form: 



Article A. 



It is agreed that the inhabitants of the United States shall have 

 liberty to take fish, of every kind, on that part of the western coast 

 of Newfoundland which extends from Cape Ray to the Quirpon 

 islands, and on that part of the southern and eastern coasts of Labra- 

 dor which extends from Mount Joli to Huntingdon island ; and it 

 is further agreed that the fishermen of the United States shall have 

 liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors and 

 creeks of the said south and east coasts of Labrador, so long as the 

 same shall remain unsettled ; but as soon as the same, or any part of 

 them, shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen 

 to dry or cure fish without a previous agreement for that purpose 

 with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground. 



And it is further agreed that nothing contained in this article 

 shall be construed to give to the inhabitants of the United States 

 am- liberty to take fish within the rivers of His Britannic Majesty's 



"Appendix, p. 310. ^Appendix, p. 311. 



